Fond du Lac School District elections (2017)
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Two of the seven seats on the Fond du Lac School District school board were up for at-large general election on April 4, 2017. Board incumbent Mark Strand filed for re-election and was joined on the ballot by newcomers Greg Freiherr, Monica Walk, and Dan Sitter. Strand and Walk won election for the two seats.[1]
Elections
Voter and candidate information
The Fond du Lac school board consists of seven members elected at large to three-year terms on a staggered basis. Every year two or three members are up for election.
School board candidates had to be at least 18 years old, U.S. citizens, and residents of the school district for a minimum of 28 consecutive days before filing as a candidate. They also could not be disqualified from voting under Wisconsin law.[2]
To get on the ballot, school board candidates had to file nomination papers with the school district clerk by January 3, 2017. If incumbents whose terms were up for re-election did not file to run in the race and did not file written notification that they would not be running, the candidate filing deadline could have been extended until January 6, 2017. The terms of candidates elected in the race started on April 24, 2017.[2]
At-large
Results
| Fond du Lac School District, At-Large General Election, 3-year terms, 2017 |
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|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Monica Walk |
34.06% | 2,725 |
| Mark Strand Incumbent |
30.51% | 2,441 |
| Dan Sitter | 19.70% | 1,576 |
| Greg Freiherr | 15.57% | 1,246 |
| Write-in votes | 0.16% | 13 |
| Total Votes | 8,001 | |
| Source: Elisabeth Moore, "Email correspondence with Eileen Shapiro," May 23, 2017 | ||
Candidates
| Mark Strand | Greg Freiherr | ||
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| Monica Walk | Dan Sitter | ||
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Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: Wisconsin elections, 2017
The Fond du Lac School District school board election shared the ballot with elections for the office of Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction and one seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.[3]
Key deadlines
The following dates were key deadlines for Wisconsin school board elections in 2017:[4][5]
| Deadline | Event |
|---|---|
| January 3, 2017 | Candidate filing deadline |
| January 16, 2017 | Campaign finance deadline for candidates registered before January 1 |
| February 13, 2017 | Campaign finance deadline for districts holding primary elections |
| March 27, 2017 | Campaign finance deadline for general election |
| April 4, 2017 | Election Day |
| April 24, 2017 | Board members take office |
| July 15, 2017 | Post-election campaign finance deadline |
Endorsements
Do you know of an official or organization that endorsed a candidate in this race? Let Ballotpedia know by email at editor@ballotpedia.org.
Campaign finance
Monica Walk was the only candidate in this election to file a report of contributions and expenditures with the Fond du Lac School District. She reported $3,675.69 in contributions and $1,491.41 in expenditures, leaving her campaign with $2,184.28 cash on hand as of March 25, 2017.[6]
All school board candidates in Wisconsin were required to file a campaign registration statement with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission after qualifying as candidates. This statement declares their candidacy to the county clerk's office and allows them to claim exemption from reporting campaign contributions and expenditures. Candidates were only required to report campaign contributions and expenditures if they did one or both of the following:[7]
- Accepted contributions, made disbursements, or incurred debt in excess of $2,000 during the calendar year
- Accepted more than $100 from a single source during the calendar year, barring contributions made by candidates to their own campaigns
There were three campaign finance report deadlines in 2017:
- The pre-primary report was due February 13, 2017,
- The pre-election report was due March 27, 2017, and
- The post-election report was due July 15, 2017.[8]
Candidates who filed before January 1, 2017, also had to file a continuing campaign finance report on January 16, 2017.[5]
Past elections
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2016
2015Incumbents Eric Everson and Susan Jones were joined in the race by Linda Uselmann, with Jones and Ulman emerging victorious. 2014
2013
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What was at stake?
Report a story for this election
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Candidate survey
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Candidates respond to questions from the Fond du Lac Reporter
Board incumbent Mark Strand and challengers Greg Freiherr, Dan Sitter, and Monica Walk participated in a series of questions and answers posed and published by the Fond du Lac Reporter. The tables below compare their answers.[9][10][11]
| What issues in the Fond du Lac School District and/or public education have compelled you to run for a seat on the Fond du Lac Board of Education? | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Mark Strand | Greg Freiherr | Dan Sitter | Monica Walk |
| "I have been honored to have served the community and school district on the school board since October of 2010. My wife, three sons and I are all byproducts of the Fond du Lac School District. My parents were both school teachers in this district and are sadly no longer living. I therefore have a vested interest in the Fond du Lac District. I truly believe this district provides a quality education and prepares students to be college or career ready, thus allowing them to become productive members of society. Developing partnerships between private business and community organizations was instrumental in the developing the planning of the Career Construction Academy, a 5,750 square foot building attached to Fond du Lac High School. The school board with school leaders must pay close attention to the culture they collectively create."[9] | "Students must be ready for future jobs. Offices, manufacturing, construction, even retail sales will be very different in 10 years. The School Board must work more with Fond du Lac-based schools, public and private, and especially with companies to set up training programs that look to the near- and long-term future. The board has to be sure students are learning the fundamentals: English, math — and proper behavior. Doing so from early grades (as our schools have begun to do) will teach "soft skills" — teamwork, good judgment, accountability and responsibility. And it will reduce classroom disruption. Finally we must get the most from our budget dollars. We don't need more taxes. We just have to be smart about spending the budget that schools already get so students get the most benefit possible. As a board member, I will make decisions based on what will benefit students the most."[9] | "There is not one particular issue which compelled me to run. There simply was an opportunity to help guide my local school district. In the times ahead, with many different scenarios for public schools looming both from the state and federal government we'll need board members who understand what public education is, inside and outside the buildings where it occurs. With internal knowledge from being within the profession, I think I have a very unique and powerful perspective on how to advocate for public education."[9] | "My onsite insight into classrooms compels me to run: 11 years volunteering/ tutoring/school events; leading Girl Scout troops; and teaching Junior Achievement and K-8 financial literacy for a local bank, which connects me with thousands of children and their teachers annually. Raised in a service-focused family (former police chief Dad served on Mayville City Council), school board service is my next commitment to children and community. Issues: Increasing communication about public education for all community stakeholders; focusing on community ownership of public schools (children educated now will become our workers, colleagues and neighbors in our community where many grow up and continue to reside as adults); understanding relationship of investment in public education to local economy strength; confronting crisis of student poverty/recognizing teachers cannot solve this problem alone in classrooms; comprehending long-range impact of private school vouchers on health of public schools; and striving to attract/retain diverse teachers/administrators."[9] |
| How can Fond du Lac attract the best teachers and what needs to be done to retain quality teachers during this teacher shortage? | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Mark Strand | Greg Freiherr | Dan Sitter | Monica Walk |
| "The Fond du Lac School District is the 18th largest school district in the state and does experience successful recruitment. There are certain specialty positions that are always challenging. The newly hired teacher will be assigned a mentor, who is an experienced resource, usually from the same discipline. My hope and belief is, not only for the new teachers but also experienced ones, that the principals and/or assistants will learn what the teacher/employee’s interests, aspirations and desires are, along with what their families are all about. Once this is learned, they can be looked upon as people, not just teachers/ employees. I know that is done more times than not, but it is vital to create a valued and healthy work environment."[10] | "ACT 10 hurt teachers in more than their pocketbooks. It devalued what they do. It pushed them away. The School Board can do a lot to fix that. The Board can involve teachers in decisions that affect them, spend time in classrooms to get firsthand experience, then take this information and work with teachers to improve classrooms so they can really do what they love — teach. To be effective, the Board must be smart about the budget (see School Board Video Jan. 9 at 20:17), use technology like smartphone apps to bring students together and help administrators and teachers work as a team. The board needs to encourage programs that have made "behavior" one of the fundamentals, expand Reading Recovery and programs like it and recruit volunteers from the community to serve as tutors and mentors. Doing this will help make Fond du Lac schools places where teachers aspire to work."[10] | "You attract the best teachers when you create an atmosphere where staff knows they can be trusted to act as professionals. Making sure that occurs filters throughout the way staff speak in public, how they express themselves at conferences, and spread the message that Fond du Lac Public Schools is somewhere EVERYONE should want to work. Compensation is important, but teachers value respect and a voice in their profession even more. Lastly, we must get truly accurate information from staff that choose to leave the District."[10] | "Job satisfaction reports across professions point to employer respect and appreciation being key for retaining employees. Act 10 took away pension and bargaining, but, perhaps more significantly, teacher morale due to negative commentary. I witness a need to increase communication and collaboration, and to acknowledge teacher expertise to build relationships among teacher-colleagues, administrators, students, and parents. Use exit interviews to learn why teachers leave and apply this knowledge to encourage retention of remaining teachers. Attract new teachers through direct relationship-building with college education programs and entities like Teach for America, through both mentoring and peer-team collaboration, by reconciling data collection time to increase more satisfying colleague and student connections, by offering competitive salary and incentives, by providing classroom support and by celebrating teacher commitment and increasing community respect."[10] |
| Class sizes are growing and filled with students who have diverse needs. How do we address the growing needs of students with less staff? | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Mark Strand | Greg Freiherr | Dan Sitter | Monica Walk |
| "Class sizes and students have actually remained relatively stable. The students today are so much more diverse than ever before. Different races, ethnicities, religions, genders and social-economic statuses gives the opportunity to learn about each other and how to work together. This diversity is our strength. The district and the school board has now hired six interpreters as district employees. Some early grades students have struggled with the English language and parents conferences also utilizes interpreters. Free or reduced breakfast or lunch is imperative for many of the schools with the need. Kids that are hungry are not conducive to a learning environment for those students. Every individual is unique an equally important component of our school, culture and climate of success."[11] | "Technology can help, but it can go only so far. The Board must encourage community involvement, create more partnerships with companies and area schools to provide career training programs, recruit mentors from the area workforce who students can look up to and find student leaders and volunteers to help young students overcome reading problems (ADVOCAP's Foster Grandparents Program.) The Board has to be creative and encourage programs that help children control their behavior, as our schools are now doing (with great results at Fond du Lac High School High School, Sabish Middle School and Waters Elementary School), and consider pairing school liaison officers with service dogs that can calm students before violence erupts. (Could a community fundraiser raise the cash for one or more dogs? Could corporate partners donate the funds?) We don't have to work harder or increase taxes. We just have to be smart about what we do.."[11] | "By being creative with the resources we have, by being prudent in budgeting monies to services that directly influence children's learning in the classrooms, and staying at the forefront of utilizing educational technology. The technology in today's schools has the ability to revolutionize personal, individualized educational programs for all kids. Those supports allow teachers more time to focus on the kids, and less time dealing with paperwork and other time fillers. If you take a class of 30 and try to work individually with each child in 48-minute chunks of time, you only get about 8 minutes per child PER WEEK. We need to find a way to increase how much time each student gets personal attention."[11] | "I believe increases in class size and student needs indicates increasing school staffing. Recent data show Wisconsin students have growing physical/ mental health issues while schools are significantly understaffed in social workers and nurses. (The governor’s proposed budget acknowledges this need.) I have experienced changes in elementary classroom populations and believe that teachers want to serve children of all needs/abilities, but require additional classroom help. In my earlier volunteering, more classrooms had trained aides, creating smoother dynamics. Elementary teachers tell me each school needs a full-time reading specialist working with children. Recruits in ADVOCAP’s Foster Grandparent program give students help and a positive inter-generational experience. Since families are unable to schedule volunteering like in times past, we need to develop ongoing volunteer relationships from other sources, including additional retirees with job-skill mentoring capability, college students, and local business people who understand the long-term community value of our public schools."[11] |
Election trends
- See also: School board elections, 2017
The average number of candidates running in the 2017 Fond du Lac school board election was 2.00, which was higher than it was in 2016 and 2015. That number was 1.00 in 2016 and 1.50 in 2015. In 2015, the district's rate of unopposed seats was 00.00 percent, the Wisconsin state average was 32.00 percent, and the U.S. average was 35.95 percent. During the same year, 35.29 percent of the seats up for election in Wisconsin were filled by newcomers, while newcomers won 40.81 percent of school board seats in the largest school districts across the United States. The state saw a lower rate of seats won by newcomers in 2014 when that rate was 23.33 percent, while it was 38.24 percent in the U.S.
| School board election trends | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Candidates per seat | Unopposed seats | Incumbent success rate | Seats won by newcomers | |
| Fond du Lac School District | |||||
| 2017 | 2.00 | 00.00% | TBD | TBD | |
| 2016 | 1.00 | 100.00% | 100.00% | 33.33% | |
| 2015 | 1.50 | 00.00% | 50.00% | 50.00% | |
| Wisconsin | |||||
| 2015 | 1.38 | 32.00% | 84.00% | 35.29% | |
| 2014 | 1.40 | 46.67% | 88.46% | 23.33% | |
| United States | |||||
| 2015 | 1.72 | 35.95% | 82.66% | 40.81% | |
| 2014 | 1.89 | 32.59% | 81.31% | 38.24% | |
About the district
- See also: Fond du Lac School District, Wisconsin
The Fond du Lac School District is located in Fond du Lac County in eastern Wisconsin. The county seat is Fond du Lac. Fond du Lac County was home to 101,973 residents between 2010 and 2015, according to the United States Census Bureau. The district was the 15th-largest school district in the state in the 2014-2015 school year and served 7,444 students.[12][13]
Demographics
Higher education achievement
Fond du Lac County underperformed compared to Wisconsin as a whole in terms of higher education attainment from 2011 to 2015. The United States Census Bureau found that 21.5 percent of county residents aged 25 years or older had attained a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 27.8 percent for the state as a whole, and 29.8 percent for the entire United States.[13]
Median household income
From 2011 to 2015, the median household income in Fond du Lac County was $55,473. During that same time period, it was $53,357 for Wisconsin as a whole, and it was $53,889 for the entire United States.[13]
Poverty rate
The poverty rate in Fond du Lac County from 2011 to 2015 was 9.4 percent, while it was 12.1 percent statewide. During that same time period, the poverty rate for the country as a whole was 13.5 percent.[13]
| Racial Demographics, 2015[13] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race | Fond du Lac County (%) | Wisconsin (%) | |
| White | 94.9 | 87.6 | |
| Black or African American | 1.7 | 6.6 | |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.6 | 1.1 | |
| Asian | 1.5 | 2.8 | |
| Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
| Two or more races | 1.3 | 1.8 | |
| Hispanic or Latino | 5.0 | 6.6 | |
Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Fond du Lac School District Wisconsin election. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
| Fond du Lac School District | Wisconsin | School Boards |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ KFIZ, "No Primary For FDL City Council And School Board Candidates," January 4, 2017
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Wisconsin Association of School Boards, "Guide for Candidates: 2017 Spring Election Edition," accessed December 16, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin Election Commission, "Candidate Tracking by Office: 2017 Spring Election - 4/4/2017," accessed December 16, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, "Guided for Candidates," accessed December 16, 2016
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Wisconsin Ethics Commission, "Campaign Finance Checklist," accessed December 16, 2016
- ↑ Elisabeth Moore, "Email exchange with Eileen Shapiro," March 29, 2017
- ↑ Wisconsin State Legislature, "11.0104 Reporting exemptions: limited activity," accessed December 15, 2016
- ↑ Wisconsin Ethics Commission, "Filing Deadlines and Reporting Periods," accessed December 15, 2016
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Fond du Lac Reporter, "Fond du Lac school board candidates talk reason for running," March 18, 2017
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Fond du Lac Reporter, "Fond du Lac school board candidates talk about teachers," March 20, 2017
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 Fond du Lac Reporter, "Fond du Lac school board candidates discuss student needs," March 20, 2017
- ↑ U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, "Common Core of Data, file ccd_lea_052_1414_w_0216161a, 2014-2015," accessed November 16, 2016
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 United States Census Bureau, "Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin," accessed December 19, 2016
| Fond du Lac School District elections in 2017 | |
| Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin | |
| Election date: | April 4, 2017 |
| Candidates: | At-large: Incumbent, Mark Strand • Greg Freiherr • Monica Walk • Dan Sitter |
| Important information: | What's at stake? |
